Archive for the ‘seo news’ Category
Sunday, October 30th, 2022
What is the greatest skill in SEO?
If you believe this tweet, it’s patience.
Although patience is a great answer, I would never say there is a “greatest” SEO skill.
Why?
Because SEO requires various hard skills (things you can learn or be taught) and soft skills (how you work and interact with others) to succeed.
As I’ve always found, asking many SEO professionals one question will get a wide variety of opinions. So I asked several SEO professionals what they would consider the greatest skill in SEO.
Here’s what they told me.
1. Research and troubleshooting
Dave Davies, Lead SEO, Weights & Biases
- “As far as greatest skills go, I have to go with the stock SEO answer: It depends. In this case, though, it really does.
If the practitioner is content-focused, then writing skills combined with strong research abilities (both SEO and subject-based) would definitely top my list. If the practitioner is a technical SEO, then the most important skills skew to technical knowledge – but even that branches out.
If they work as a contractor, then they likely need to have a broad understanding of different tech and a strong ability to research specifics and work with developers. If they’re an in-house SEO or platform-specific contractor, then they would likely need a stronger grasp of a specific stack, and possibly deployment capabilities.
The one skill that every SEO needs is research and troubleshooting capabilities. If they can’t do that, their career will be short. Thankfully, if you’re reading this, you do your research.”
2. Critical thinking
Dan Taylor, Head of Technical SEO, SALT.agency
- “For me, one of the greater skills for SEO professionals to develop is critical thinking. The SEO ecosystem is awash with noise and claims, with varying levels of data and anecdotal evidence to support them. Far too often, much of this content and advice is taken verbatim and applied to own situations without a second thought, with the expectation that the implementation will yield the same results.
A common example in SEO happens when working with a client (and other stakeholders) on a website redesign. More often than not, the designs, and some proposed technical implementations, will be taken from other websites without considering the ‘other’ factors that go into how a website ranks. Just because eBay, the BBC, Amazon, etc. do X, doesn’t mean X will work for Bob’s Hardware or Bob’s Finance Co.
With critical thinking, SEOs should read a study online, see the inputs and outcomes, and then intentionally find other studies that contradict these results – and then form their own opinions and influence their strategies with application to the current client scenario.”
John McAlpin, Director of SEO Strategy, Cardinal Digital Marketing
3. Problem-solving
Elmer Boutin, VP of Operations, WrightIMC
Corey Morris, Chief Strategy Officer, Voltage
- “The greatest skill in SEO is problem-solving. It rarely goes according to plan.
Adapting, finding new ways, and exploring all resources for technical, on-page, IT, UX and off-page factors are all critical to success. Using a checklist, and checking boxes, won’t get you far.”
4. Experimenting
Himani Kankaria, Founder, Missive Digital
- “The greatest skill in SEO is experimenting. One thing that works for one business or industry is not necessarily what would work for another. You cannot judge that without testing.
Also, most of the projects have different audience buying and browsing perspectives, technologies for the website UX, content, how we build the navigation, etc. So you need to keep checking what works for your website, client, or employer because SEO is ever-evolving, and one cannot learn or unlearn new or outdated things without experimenting. Sometimes, we learn from someone else’s experiments, so experimenting is a super duper skill in SEO.”
5. Business acumen
Trond Lyngbø, Founder, Search Planet
Connie Chen, SEO Specialist, Moving Traffic Media
- “Commercial awareness (ROI) and soft skills because you need to be able to translate the work that you’re doing into measurable impact for your stakeholders. You must also know how to distill technical ideas into concepts that make sense to those stakeholders.”
6. Adaptability
Maria White, Head of SEO, Kurt Geiger
- “SEO is a spectrum. As such, it is hard to dominate all skills (Technical, Data, Content, PR, Story Telling, Management and more). These skills change as Google and search evolve. Every Google algorithm shapes the way we do SEO.
Given that the only constant is change, then the best skill to succeed is the ability to adapt. Changes are the norm when working in an agency: new clients, bigger clients, various budgets, fast pace and more. If, along with that, we add constant changes to the algorithm that involves changing the way we work, then here is where only those with the ability to adapt will not only survive but they will thrive.”
Holly Miller Anderson, Lead SEO Product Manager, Under Armour
- “The greatest skill in SEO is adaptability. SEO is a learned skill from technical to content. But adaptability is a choice.”
7. Communication
Casey Markee, Owner, Media Wyse
- “SEO requires an ability to clearly explain concepts and objectives, usually in many different ways, to many different people. Your ability to do so, professionally and emotionlessly, is a big part of your daily success.”
8. Ability to learn
Chris Silver Smith, President, Argent Media
- “The greatest skill in SEO is the ability to learn. One constant in SEO is change – one must learn new things and flex to adapt to new ways constantly.”
9. Persistence
Ludwig Makhyan, Co-founder, MAZELESS
- “Persistence is the greatest skill, where you don’t get disappointed by failures and continue to learn, push to improve, engage with other teams and cooperate for the greater success of the business you represent.”
10. Cross-collaboration
Jon Clark, Managing Partner, Moving Traffic Media
- “Cross-collaboration is an incredibly valuable skill. SEO is one of the few skills/roles that sits at the crossroads of nearly every department in an organization: design, development, content, UX, PR, marketing, engineering, quality assurance, analytics, and more.”
11. Understanding the user
Mike Grehan, SVP of Corporate Communications, NP Digital
- “The greatest skill of an SEO is to fully understand the “information need” of an end user. They don’t start their research as a consumer or a B2C customer or B2B, or anything other than a human being trying to solve a problem. Help Google to help them – and Google will surely help you!”
12. Inquisitiveness
Mark Jackson, President and CEO, Vizion Interactive
- “An inquisitive mind. In SEO, you can be a technically gifted and super bright person or a content marketing expert, but if you lack an inquisitive mind, you may not be looking at a project from all the possible angles.”
13. Ability to know what matters
Olaf Kopp, Co-founder and Head of SEO, Aufgesang
- “The greatest skill in SEO is “ranking experience.” You can do a lot in SEO. But only 20% of that ensures 80% of success. Only with enough experience in knowing which tasks are effective, in which case makes the difference between good and average SEOs.”
Joe Devita, Managing Partner, Moving Traffic Media
- “The ability to stay focused on the optimization signals that matter rather than be distracted by all the noise.”
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Thursday, October 27th, 2022
YouTube has just announced that licensed healthcare providers can now apply to make their channels eligible for new health product features – a suite of information resources released last year.
What this means. The health product features previously launched include health source information panels to help viewers identify videos from authoritative sources and health content shelves that highlight videos from these sources when you search for health topics, so people can more easily navigate and evaluate health information online.
Previously, those features have only been available to educational institutions, public health departments, hospitals, and government entities. The new guidelines will make the features available to a wider group of healthcare providers.
How to apply. Eligible healthcare providers can apply starting today using the guidelines below, taken directly from the YouTube blog announcement.
Applicants must have proof of their license, follow best practices for health information sharing as set out by the Council of Medical Specialty Societies, the National Academy of Medicine and the World Health Organization, and have a channel in good standing on YouTube. Full details on eligibility requirements are here.
All channels that apply will be reviewed against these guidelines, and the license of the applying healthcare professional will be verified. In the coming months, eligible channels that have applied through this process will be given a health source information panel that identifies them as a licensed healthcare professional and their videos will appear in relevant search results in health content shelves. Health creators in the US can apply starting October 27th at health.youtube, and we’ll continue to expand availability to other markets and additional medical specialties in the future.
Why we care. YouTube is trying to help people become more informed, engaged and empowered about their health by attempting to create a space where they can find reliable, factual, and informative content from legitimate healthcare providers.
However, not every licensed healthcare provider shares safe, proven, harmless content. Users should still do their due diligence to ensure that the content they are consuming is high quality.
Additionally, advertisers who work with licensed providers should apply for the new features today to ensure their channels have added visibility.
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Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Thursday, October 27th, 2022
Google advertisers can now advertise on podcasts.
Yep, announced today, “advertisers can now align their ads with podcast content globally. Simply create an audio or video campaign and select “Podcast” as a placement.”
Why we care. Last month we reported on three new audio, shopping, and streaming features available to YouTube advertisers. Today advertisers can officially select “podcast” as their preferred placement.
The post Google Ads podcast placement now available appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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Thursday, October 27th, 2022
Google has just unveiled several new Google Analytics 4 (GA4) updates, including a new homepage experience, real-time behavioral modeling reports, and custom channel grouping.
Insights through machine learning
Behavioral modeling. Behavior modeling with real time reporting will give advertisers a complete picture of user behavior as it happens, in a privacy-centric way.
Behavior modeling uses machine learning to fill in the gaps of your understanding of customer behavior when cookies and other identifiers aren’t available.
Real-time updates will be available in the near future to give advertisers a complete view of the customer journey as it’s happening.
The new home page experience. Originally previewed at Google Marketing Live and available to all advertisers as of today, is personalized for customers, highlighting key top-line trends, real-time behavior and their most viewed reports. Additionally, it uses machine learning to look for trends and insights and surfaces them directly to advertisers on the home page.
Integrations and solutions to power better ROI
Data-driven attribution (DDA). DDA was introduced into GA4 earlier this year, after becoming the default for all ads conversions last fall. Soon, Google will launch custom channel grouping, a feature that lets advertisers combine different channels to compare cost-per-acquisition and return-on-ad-spend based on data-driven attribution. For example, businesses will be able to compare the performance of their paid search brand with their non-brand campaigns.
Integration with Campaign Manager 360. With this integration, you’ll be able to see a more complete picture of your campaign performance alongside web and app behavioral metrics.
GA4 Setup Assistant updates
Universal Analytics (UA) is sunsetting in 2023, so to help advertisers complete the transition easily, Google is rolling out an update early next year that will automatically help standard UA users set up their GA4 properties.
Google’s step-by-step guide will help you migrate to GA4 on your own if you choose to opt out of using the Setup Assistant. If you choose to utilize the Setup Assistant, you can access it in the admin section of your UA property.
Beginning early next year, the Setup Assistant will create a new Google Analytics 4 property for each standard UA property that doesn’t already have one. It should also be noted “the new GA4 properties will be connected with the corresponding UA properties to match your privacy and collection settings. They’ll also enable equivalent basic features such as goals and Google Ads links,” Google said.
New migration deadline for 360 customers
Additionally, we acknowledge that this is a complex transition, especially for enterprise customers which is why we’re pushing the migration deadline for 360 customers from October 2023 to July 2024, to ensure a successful setup.
Dig deeper. You can read the full announcement and more details on the features on the Google Marketing Blog.
Why we care. GA4 has been an inconvenient thorn in the garden of marketing. Maybe that’s being dramatic, but most advertisers are putting off implementing the new Analytics property to the very last minute. This is a bad idea.
If you haven’t set up GA4 yet, get started on it asap. Utilize the Setup Assistant to begin collecting data, then go back later and customize your dashboard and create additional views.
These new features are only helpful if you’re actually using the product.
More resources. Check out these additional resources to help you set up and get the most out of GA4:
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Thursday, October 27th, 2022
Reddit is working on a new Ads API and have just announced their first four alpha partners. The partners will be integrated into the API and are helping build solution that will inevitably help advertisers build, scale, and optimize campaigns.
Who are the partners. The four partners involved in Reddit’s new venture are:
- Vidmob
- Sprinklr
- adMixt
- PMG
Who will benefit. Reddit’s API will benefit advertisers spending at scale, as well as self-serve advertisers who are using Reddit ads for the first time.
Release date. The API is still in development and there is no release date published at this time. Reddit says they are looking to “bring more strategic developers on board in the coming months.”
What Reddit says. “We have long had the aspiration to build an ecosystem of partners via our API that enables more effective and efficient campaign management on our platform. The Reddit Ads API will allow a global, diverse set of partners and clients to access all the capabilities we have built and continue to develop to drive performance,” said Reddit COO, Jen Wong. “These foundational alpha partners represent some of the best and brightest across the industry in terms of innovation, creativity and adtech. Having them join our developer ecosystem is tremendously exciting.”
Why we care. The new API will help advertisers discover new audiences, trends, and additional data they need to optimize their campaigns for conversions.
The post Reddit is building an Ads API, first 4 partners announced appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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Wednesday, October 26th, 2022
Google has just announced the release of v12 of the API.
Here are the highlights. Taken directly from the Google Ads Developer Blog.
Update your Client Library. Developers who want to utilize these new features will need to ensure their Client Libraries are updated.
Dig deeper. Get more information about the new release from the Developer Blog.
Why we care. The new API includes updated conversion tracking, removed support for certain features and campaigns, and supports additional services such as location targeting. Developers who utilize APIs should update their Client Libraries and implement the changes so they have the most updated features.
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Wednesday, October 26th, 2022
Meta shared its 2022 Q3 earnings today and, as expected, performance left a lot to be desired. Advertising revenue came in at $27.2 billion, down roughly 4% year-over-year.
The positives. Overall ad impressions were up 17%, while the cost per ad decreased 18% YoY.
Monthly active users on the platform increased 2% to 2.96 billion YoY.
Not news. Meta isn’t alone when it comes to underperforming earnings. This week Google and Microsoft also released worse-than-expected results, to the disappointment of investors. SNAP also reported their slowest-ever quarterly growth last week, but added 6% more monthly users.
Frankly, Meta’s poor performance is (probably) no surprise to anyone. Meta shares are down nearly 60% YTD and inflation, a shaky economy, and privacy changes certainly contribute. At closing today, shared decreased another 7.69%.
iOS and ongoing TikTok competition. Meta is still dealing with a host of challenges due to the implementation of iOS14, including growing competition from TikTok, all of which have taken a toll on Meta’s ability to drive interest in both organic and advertising users.
Internal company documents obtained by the Wall Street Journal, indicate that Instagram users cumulatively are spending 17.6 million hours a day watching Reels, less than one-tenth of the 197.8 million hours TikTok users spend each day on that platform.
What meta says. “Our community continues to grow and I’m pleased with the strong engagement we’re seeing driven by progress on our discovery engine and products like Reels,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Meta founder and CEO. “While we face near-term challenges on revenue, the fundamentals are there for a return to stronger revenue growth. We’re approaching 2023 with a focus on prioritization and efficiency that will help us navigate the current environment and emerge an even stronger company.”
Dig deeper. You can review the Meta Investor Relations site with slides and a Webcast replay here.
Why we care. This quarters disappointing financials for both search and social could be a sign of an even bigger economic pitfall. Advertisers should prepare for higher CPCs, staff cuts, and increased costs all around.
The post Meta Q3 earnings: ad revenue declined 4%, but monthly users showing promise appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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Wednesday, October 26th, 2022
The new trim video tool from YouTube turns your videos into 6-second videos that you can use for bumper ads. How convenient!
Machine learning strikes again. The new tool is now available globally in Google Ads, making it easy for advertisers to create bumper ads. The tool is powered by a machine learning model that identifies important scenes and brand elements from the original video and adapts them for shorter formats, Google says.
Not new(s). The tool was first introduced in 2019 as Bumper Machine and Google says that since then it “has helped hundreds of brands drive more reach, frequency and efficiency by effortlessly generating 6-second bumper ads. It improves on the Bumper Machine beta in many ways, with an enhanced machine learning model that can better select clips to adapt into shorter formats and an interface with more intuitive editing capabilities.”
Dig deeper. Learn more about the new trim tool in the Google Ads Help Center.
Why we care. The new tool can be used by advertisers to quickly create bumper ads if they don’t have the cutting and editing resources available to larger businesses. The new feature also allows you to test multiple ads much faster, as all of the videos created will be available in the asset library.
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Wednesday, October 26th, 2022
Google is anticipating a busy holiday season this year. In preparation, they have just announced three new Performance Max features to help advertisers plan effective campaigns, customize their asset strategy, and evaluate your results.
The Performance Planner
Advertisers can use the new Performance Planner to create campaign plans and understand how to invest their budgets while maximizing ROI. The new planner is being launched now and will be available to all advertisers in the coming weeks.
Planner features. With the Performance Planner, advertisers can forecast how their campaigns may perform in the future, as well as what can happen when certain elements like bidding strategies are implemented.
Customizing your asset strategy
Asset group scheduling. Asset group scheduling rolled out earlier this month. Now, you can add automated rules which allow you to schedule asset groups so they can be paused and enabled as needed. With scheduling, you can run ads at specific times of the day, or create and run different asset groups ahead of time.
More headlines to get your message across. The number of headlines you can upload to your Performance Max asset groups will increase from 5 to 15. Google says that by adding more headlines “you can take advantage of machine learning’s ability to create and test even more combinations to find the best-performing variations.”
Evaluating results
Performance explanations. Explanations help you identify what’s driving performance fluctuations, diagnose issues, and view recommendations. You can see these in the explanations panels and they are available for all Performance max campaigns.
First-party audience insights. A cookieless future is imminent, but it doesn’t have to mean the end of accurate targeting. Now, you can add your data segments as audience signals in your Performance max campaigns. In the coming weeks, your data segments will be added to audience insights in the Insights page. These insights may help you understand the value of your first-party data and see which of your customer lists may be converting best.
Dig deeper. You can read the announcement from Google here.
Best practices. Google suggests the following best practices as you plan your holiday campaigns:
- A few days leading up to peak holiday periods, make sure to adjust your Performance Max campaign budgets and ROAS or CPA targets to maximize your visibility when consumers are shopping.
- Consider using seasonality adjustments if you have a promotion, sale, or event where you expect to see drastic changes in conversion rates or values over a short period of time. You should only use seasonality adjustments for brief, infrequent events where you expect a temporary, but significant change (e.g. greater than 30%) that will last less than 7 days.
- If you want to prioritize certain products this holiday season, you can create a separate Performance Max campaign with its own target and budget to promote these products. However, if you just want to highlight new holiday creative assets, you can create a new asset group for these in your existing Performance Max campaigns and pause your evergreen asset groups, if needed.
Why we care. The new features may help Performance Max advertisers optimize, measure, and take advantage of additional asset features. If you’re using Performance max, you should test and utilize these new features as soon as possible, ahead of the holiday season, to drive the most benefit.
Regarding Google’s best practices, I’m skeptical of their advice to wait “A few days leading up to peak holiday periods” to make such drastic changes. Come on, Google.
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Tuesday, October 25th, 2022
Apple now has four new options for advertisers to drive visibility and downloads in the App Store. The new placements are:
- Today tab
- Search tab
- Search results
- Product pages — while browsing
The Today tab. The Today tab lets you reach people with high-impact creative on the front page of the App Store. The ad creative for the Today tab placements are based on a custom product page you set up in App Store Connect, and must be approved for advertising before your ad can run.
Search tab. Ads on this tab let you reach users before they search for something specific, with an ad that appears prominently at the top of the suggested apps list on the Search tab.
Search results ads. These let you reach users when they search for something specific, with an ad at the top of relevant search results. To match your ad with potential customers’ search terms, you can choose your own keywords or use the ones that Apple suggests. Matching is based on a direct signal of customers’ intent — their search query.
Product pages – while browsing. These ads let you reach people while they browse apps on relevant pages across the App Store, whether their journey started on the App Store or from an outside link. When interested users have scrolled to the bottom of relevant product pages, ads appear at the top of the You Might Also Like list.
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How ads are created. Apple ads are created using the metadata and assets you upload in App Store Connect. Search tab and product page ads feature app name, icon, and subtitle. Today tab ads are created using a custom product page you set up in App Store Connect. For search results ads, you can create a default ad that’s based on your app’s product page, or you can create ad variations from custom product pages you set up in App Store Connect.
Why we care. Advertisers who run ads on Apple Search now have four options to showcase their product or app in the App Store. Like with any new platform or product, advertisers should test the different placement options and compare performance to determine the best options for their business.
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